This invention relates to outdoor area or street lighting luminaires of the ovate or tear drop shape and more particularly to a fauna guard, shield or closure member to prevent the ingress of small animals and birds into the interior, electrified portions of the luminair.
The ovate type street lighting or area lighting luminaire which enclosed the reflector, lamp, lamp socket and ballast as well as the mounting slip fitter within a single housing, as illustrated in the U.S. Pat. No. Re.25900 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,530,287 has evolved over the past 20 years into a more streamlined, lighter weight product through repeated cost reduction efforts. In the earlier versions the luminaire housing completely surrounded the slip fitter leaving only a small access aperture in the end of the luminaire housing for the support pipe to enter. With this construction the entrance of small animals and birds into the interior of the luminaire housing was not a particularly significant problem. As evidenced in U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,362 the problem was not non-existent even in luminaires which included a completely enclosed slip fitter area and in that patent a shield member comprising a generally U-shaped bendable sheet was arranged within the housing for substantially covering the opening between the housing and the support pipe to which the luminaire was mounted.
In the more modern type luminaire as disclosed in this application, the housing does not extend completely around the slip fitter portion of the luminaire thus rendering the luminaire easier to mount to the support pipe by providing ready access to the slip fitter mounting bolts without the necessity of removing a portion of the housing, opening a cover door or operating blindly through apertures in the housing wall. With this more modern cost effective construction entrance by small birds and animals into the interior electrified portion of the luminaire is much more likely and means prohibiting such entrance has become a necessary addition to the luminaire construction.